How many people for a two bedroom house?

[Ram Hernandez]

Hello everyone,

Is there any regulation related to how many people can leave in a two-bedroom house?

I would like to have some specific requirements for a tenant before they get into the house.

Ideally, this house should be for a couple and two kids.

Thank you, 

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Ram Hernandez:

Hello everyone,

Is there any regulation related to how many people can leave in a two-bedroom house?

I would like to have some specific requirements for a tenant before they get into the house.

Ideally, this house should be for a couple and two kids.

HUD has what is commonly referred to as the "Keating Memo" which you can read here: https://www.hud.gov/sites/docu...

Essentially, they say it is legal to set occupancy limits, but they should be reasonable and justifiable. The default is two people per bedroom, plus one. If you have a three bedroom house, that means you can limit occupancy to seven people. You cannot state a bedroom is limited to a child vs an adult because that may be seen as discrimination.

Your occupancy limits can be adjusted up or down based on various factors like square footage of the room, square footage of the entire home, "flexible" space like an office that can be used as living space, utility limitations (e.g. septic is only designed for three people), etc. I have a house that was originally a one-room cabin then someone added two bedrooms. However, the septic system can't handle a family of five and it has problems any time there's a heavy rain, so we limit occupancy to two people. You may have a two bedroom home that is 800 sq.ft. and another that is 3,000 sq.ft. and can fit twice as many people.

Make sure whatever limits you set are justifiable, applied equally, and you could defend them in court.